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Webster 1913 Edition
Poem
Po′em
,Noun.
[L.
poëma
, Gr. [GREEK], fr. [GREEK] to make, to compose, to write, especially in verse: cf. F. poëme
.] 1.
A metrical composition; a composition in verse written in certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme, and characterized by imagination and poetic diction; – contradistinguished from prose;
as, the
. poems
of Homer or of Milton2.
A composition, not in verse, of which the language is highly imaginative or impassioned;
as, a prose
poem
; the poems
of Ossian.Webster 1828 Edition
Poem
PO'EM
,Noun.
1.
A metrical composition; a composition in which the verses consist of certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme; as the poems of Homer or of Milton; opposed to prose.2.
This term is also applied to some compositions in which the language is that of excited imagination; as the poems of Ossian.